An investigation into the virtual self, purchase behaviour and simulated gambling in video games

Simulated gambling has been observed in over 100 video games as early as in 2012 (King, Delfabbro, Derevensky & Griffiths, 2012), however, the implications of participating in this activity are poorly understood. In the first part of this study, 10 participants were interviewed to investigate the influence of the virtual self in video games on spending habits and risk-taking behaviour in-game. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. No influence of the virtual self on spending behaviour or interaction with simulated gambling was found. In the second part of this study, 52 participants (25 non-gamers, 27 gamers) were invited to complete an online card gambling task and a personality questionnaire that measured risk-taking behaviour. It was hypothesised that regular gamers would turn over more cards and therefore take more risks than non-gamers. This hypothesis was not supported, non-gamers turned over significantly more cards than gamers. Implications for future research are discussed.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Masters by Research

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Masters Thesis

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Abertay University

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Bayne, Cecilia

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Scott-Brown, Kenneth
• Lovell, Paul

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

oai:rke.abertay.ac.uk:studenttheses/1e0d6e15-ab03-4e79-973d-e96a847dac02

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:rke.abertay.ac.uk:studenttheses/1e0d6e15-ab03-4e79-973d-e96a847dac02